aLoneWorldEnds

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Le Jardin Parfumé, KSS35 Tuesday 7 December, 1976 Wigmore Hall, London, England Yonty Solomon, Piano solo J. Curwen and Sons Ltd., 1927

< World Premiere > RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS : Mass in G minor (for unaccompanied SATB-SATB choir & SATB soli) Wednesday 6 December, 1922 – Town Hall, Birmingham City of Birmingham Choir, cond. Joseph Lewis J. Curwen & Sons, Ltd., 1922

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Symphonic Nocturne, KSS97 Thursday 3 December, 2015 Miryzaal, School of Arts, Koninklijk Conservatorium Gent, Belgium Lukas Huisman, Piano solo

< World Premiere > ESA-PEKKA SALONEN : Two Songs from Kalender Röd (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir) Saturday 2 December, 2000 – Stockholm Swedish Radio Choir, cond. Stefan Parkman Texts : Ann Jäderlund Chester Music Ltd., 2005 (CH63470) “I became enchanted with Ann Jäderlund's poetry because of its sensual intensity and lack of sentimentality. She describes sensations with amazing effectiveness, with few words, but with a rhythm that immediately awakens mystical associations.” – Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen's 'Two Songs from Kalender Röd' was commissioned by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation for the 75th Anniversary concert of the Swedish Radio Choir.

< World Premiere > DAVID MATTHEWS : The Ship of Death (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir) Tuesday 1 December, 1992 – Pebble Mill, Birmingham Finzi Singers, cond. Paul Spicer Text: D. H. Lawrence Faber Music, Ltd., 1996 (Cat. No. 0571554148)

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SORABJI : Opus Clavicembalisticum, KSS50 Monday 1 December, 1930 Stevenson Hall, Glasgow, Scotland Kaikhosru Sorabji, Piano solo

< World Premiere > RICHARD STRAUSS : Also sprach Zarathustra, Op.30 Friday 27 November, 1896 – Frankfurt, Germany Municipal Orchestra of Frankfurt-am-Main, cond. Richard Strauss ... It came as no surprise that when Richard Strauss announced the subject of his new symphonic poem, a great outcry went up. Philosophy through music? Ridiculous! Yet, unknown to Strauss or anyone else, Nietzsche had confided to his journal that the nature of Zarathustra belongs “almost among the symphonies.” On the eve of Zarathustra’s premiere in December 1896, Strauss felt it necessary to clarify his position and wrote: “I did not intend to write philosophical music or portray Nietzsche’s great work musically. I meant rather to convey in music an idea of the evolution of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of development, religious as well as scientific, up to Nietzsche’s idea of the Übermensch.” – Dr. Michael Fink

< World Premiere > WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI : Concerto for Orchestra Friday 26 November, 1954 – Warsaw, Poland Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Witold Rowicki J & W Chester / Edition Wilhelm Hansen London, 1972 “Direct impetus for this work came via an invitation from the conductor Witold Rowicki, who in 1950 asked Lutosławski to write a piece based on folk material for performance by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, which Rowicki founded that year. As Lutosławski grappled with the piece, it grew into a full three-movement composition. Lutosławski would often work on pieces over long periods of time; the four-year gestation period of the 'Concerto for Orchestra' was not unusual. What Rowicki received is a brilliant orchestral showpiece that, like Bartók’s 'Concerto for Orchestra', is a virtuoso vehicle for the ensemble as a whole.” — James M. Keller

< World Premiere > EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA : Missa A Cappella (for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir) Friday 25 November, 2011 – Jacobikerk, Utrecht Netherlands Radio Choir, cond. Celso Antunes Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd., 2011

< World Premiere > HERBERT HOWELLS : Mass in the Dorian Mode (for unaccompanied SATB choir) Sunday 24 November, 1912 - Westminster Cathedral, England Westminster Cathedral Choir, dir. Dr. Richard Terry

< World Premiere > KAIKHOSRU SHAPURJI SORABJI : Gulistān, KSS63 Tuesday 22 November, 1977 Wigmore Hall, London, England Yonty Solomon, Piano solo Sorabji wrote a number of nocturnes, from the earliest stages in his development until his final years. These include some of his better-known works such as 'Le jardin parfumé' and 'Djâmi'. Several works — such as 'In the Hothouse' of 1918 and the much later 'Villa Tasca', written 1979–80 — are not designated as nocturnes, but nonetheless occupy the same languorous, exotic atmosphere that characterises 'Gulistān' (1940), arguably his most succesful essay in the genre. The poet Sa‘dī of Shīrāz (ca. 1213–92) finished the extended 'Gulistān' in 1258, after many years of travelling. Although Sorabji’s nocturne is not a programmatic work, that the poem had significant influence on the work’s composition is undeniable. — Jonathan Powell

< World Premiere > HERBERT HOWELLS : Take Him Earth for Cherishing “To the honored memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, President of the United States” Sunday 22 November, 1964 The National Gallery, Washington DC Choir of the Cathedral of St. George, Kingston, Ontario cond. George N. Maybee Text : from 'Hymnus circa Excequias Defuncti', Aurelius Prudentius (348-413) H. W. Gray Co. Inc., 1964 Take him, earth, for cherishing, to thy tender breast receive him. Body of a man I bring thee, noble even in its ruin. Once was this a spirit’s dwelling, by the breath of God created. High the heart that here was beating, Christ the prince of all its living. Guard him well, the dead I give thee, not unmindful of his creature shall he ask it: he who made it symbol of his mystery. Comes the hour God hath appointed to fulfil the hope of men, then must thou, in very fashion, what I give, return again. Not though ancient time decaying wear away these bones to sand, ashes that a man might measure in the hollow of his hand: Not though wandering winds and idle, drifting through the empty sky, scatter dust was nerve and sinew, is it given to man to die. Once again the shining road leads to ample Paradise; open are the woods again, that the serpent lost for men Take, O take him, mighty leader, take again thy servant’s soul. Grave his name, and pour the fragrant balm upon the icy stone.

< World Premiere > CORRADO MARGUTTI : Missa Lorca (for Baritone / SSATTB soli, & double SSATBB choir a cappella) Saturday 18 November, 2006 – St. Jacob's Church, Stockholm Astrum Music Publications, Slovenia, 2007 (AS 34.010/01) Texts : Federico Garcia Lorca, and the Ordinary of the Mass

< World Premiere > MAX REGER : Geistliche Gesänge, Op. 110, Nr. 1 – Motette „Mein Odem ist schwach“ (for unaccompanied SSATB div. choir) Saturday 13 November, 1909 – Leipzig, Germany Der Thomanerchor, cond. Kurt Kranz Ed. Bote & G. Bock, Berlin, 1909 ~ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ST7d-7o0zKs

< World Premiere > MAX REGER : Motette „O Tod, wie bitter bist du“, Op. 110, Nr. 3 (for unaccompanied SSATB div. choir) Sunday 10 November, 1912 – Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany Kirchenchor St. Lukas, dir. Georg Stolz Edition Bote & Bock, 1912

< World Premiere > EDWARD ELGAR : Violin Concerto, Op. 61 Thursday 10 November, 1910 – Queen's Hall, London London Symphony Orchestra, cond. Edward Elgar Fritz Kreisler, Violin solo “The violin was Elgar’s own instrument and his 'Violin Concerto' is almost like a personal confession: it was ‘too emotional’, Elgar admitted, adding that he loved it nonetheless. The Spanish inscription he wrote opposite the title-page – Aquí está encerrada el alma de . . . . . (‘Here is enshrined the soul of . . . . .’) – offers an Elgarian enigma, to which the most popular solution is that the soul belonged to Alice (five letters, corresponding to the five dots) Stuart-Wortley, a friend for whom Elgar invented the name ‘Windflower’ (a wood anemone, one of the first signs of spring), which he also attached to two of the gentler themes in the opening movement. Elgar sketched a number of ideas in 1905 after reading a newspaper interview with Fritz Kreisler, in which the 30-year-old violinist said highly flattering things about Elgar’s music, and wished he would write something for violin. Elgar eventually got down to composing the concerto in earnest in 1909, and Kreisler gave the first performance at the Queen’s Hall in London on Monday 10 November, 1910, with Elgar himself conducting. Later on, Kreisler seems to have lost his initial enthusiasm for the work, made cuts, and resisted all attempts to persuade him to record it. The solo part is one of the most exhausting in the repertoire – a veritable compendium of bravura violin techniques, in which Elgar, despite all his inside knowledge, sought the help of W. H. Reed, later to become leader of the London Symphony Orchestra. Reed and Elgar (at the piano) gave a run-through to a select group of listeners before the first performance proper. Kreisler also made small suggestions that were incorporated in the published score. In his interview, Kreisler had ranked Elgar with Beethoven and Brahms. Elgar met the challenge, and his 'Violin Concerto' combines the singing quality of Beethoven’s with the symphonic drama of Brahms’s.” — Adrian Jack

< World Premiere > FERRUCCIO BUSONI : Piano Concerto, Op.39 Thursday 10 November, 1904 – Beethoven-Saal, Berlin Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, cond. Karl Muck Ferruccio Busoni, Piano solo Breitkopf & Härtel, 1906

< World Premiere > THOMAS DANIEL SCHLEE : Carnet poétique, Op.39 (for unaccompanied SATB div. choir) Tuesday 6 November, 2001 Chapelle Notre-Dame-des-Anges, Paris Ensemble Vocal Français, cond. Gilbert Martin-Bouyer Editions Henry Lemoine, 1997 Texts: from “Gabardine de l’Hymette” by Patrick Frégonara

< World Premiere > ERNST PEPPING : Der 90. Psalm (for unaccompanied SSATBB choir) Sunday 4 November, 1934 – Wuppertal, Germany Bachverein Barmen, dir. Gottfried Grote B. Schott's Söhne, Mainz, 1934 (BSS 34061)

< World Premiere > FRANK MARTIN : Messe pour double Chœur a cappella (1922) Saturday 2 November, 1963 – Hamburg, Germany Bugenhagen Kantorei, cond. Franz Brunnert Bärenreiter Verlag, 2014 (BA7594) “This mass, composed in 1922 (except for the 'Agnus Dei' which dates from 1926), was a work of my own free will, without commission or remuneration. Indeed at that time I knew of no choral conductor who could be interested in it. I never submitted it to the Society of Swiss Musicians for performance at one of their annual events. In fact I had no desire to have it performed as I was afraid it would be judged on a purely aesthetic level. As far as I was concerned it was a matter between God and myself. The same was true later on for a Christmas oratorio. I felt that religious fervour should remain private and not be influenced by public opinion. So much so that this composition remained in a drawer for forty years, included as a formality in my list of works. It was there in 1962 that the conductor of the Bugenhagen-Kantorei in Hamburg, Mr. Franz W. Brunnert, saw it mentioned and asked me to send it to him for perusal. He and his choir gave the first performance in the autumn of 1963, 41 years after it was composed. All the aforementioned shows clearly that, even though I wrote the mass for a large number of voices, it is music of an inward nature.” — Frank Martin